


You're still young, that's your fault.

by DigitalMeowMix



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Age Regression/De-Aging, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Groot is hitting the terrible twos, How to raise a baby tree by Rocket Racoon, Mild Child Endangerment, Parenting 101, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 07:32:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11226243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigitalMeowMix/pseuds/DigitalMeowMix
Summary: Trying to raise your best friend after he's turned into a child is hard work. This is definitely not what Rocket signed up for. He just wants his damn partner back.Scenes from an unconventional parenthood





	You're still young, that's your fault.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kastaka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kastaka/gifts).



> Set between GOTG 1 and 2. No spoilers.

It's not much of a decision about where Groot's pot gets placed in the ship, seeing as Rocket almost never puts it down.

He walks around the ship with the pot in one hand and a mechanical knick-knack or a gun in the other, eats meals in the tiny communal kitchen with the pot balanced precariously on his furry knee, puts the pot on the cockpit dashboard when it's his turn to fly. If anybody else on the ship moves to pick the pot up, he glares or threatens them until they retreat. Nobody says anything because Groot being tiny is still a sensitive subject, and it's not like Groot seems to mind being carried around like a child's blanket. His small, lean sapling of a body mostly seems to be asleep whenever they glance at him, his face a tiny knothole in the wood. He's still very zen in any form, which is comforting.

It's the first time they go out to the market for supplies and some of the needed items are mechanical, Rocket's specialty, that it presents a problem.

"Rocket, this bazaar is in a dangerous part of the planet," Gamora starts in her calmest voice, but it's the kind of calm when she knows a fight is about to break out and she's bracing herself for it. "It would be best if Groot remained on the ship."

"Fine, see ya later, then." He replied offhandedly as he sorted machine parts, he didn't bother looking up.

"Rocket, we need you there, you're the only one that knows what items we need. If we let Peter haggle for wares we will get swindled, or perhaps shot."

"Hey!" Quill grumbles, offended, but Gamora glares at him with a significant look and he quiets.

"I'm not leaving him, he's a defenseless twig!"

They all look at Groot. He is, in fact, a defenseless twig. He's got his tiny eyes closed but his arms are swaying to an invisible breeze and he seems content, like he's dreaming something good.

"Dude, he's totally safe on the ship, all he does is sleep and he's rooted down, how much trouble could he get into?" Quill points out.

Rocket looks like he's about to argue when Drax speaks.

"I will remain on the ship to watch over the small tree." He says it like he's volunteering to be sacrificed to a Zoonalan Were-Beast, and he has chosen to be heroic and accept his fate like a warrior.

They all turn to look at him, startled. Quill recovers first and turns to Rocket imploringly.

"See, dude, problem solved. Drax can babysit."

Drax gets an offended look on his face and everyone instinctively takes a step back, except for the still very chill Groot.

Drax says in a very stern tone, "Quill, I thought we were comrades, why would you suggest I sit on an infant? I believe you have very dangerous ideas about the proper care of children."

In the end, Rocket relents; Drax has experience with kids anyway. But he doesn't leave the ship until he’s talked Drax's ear off. "He likes to be warm but not too warm, and make sure he's up high, he likes to look around. If he wakes up, tell him I'll be back soon. And don't you dare drop him, you big lunkhead, or I'll stick my blaster so far up your..." He says this just as the door of the ship shuts behind him, cutting off his no doubt graphic and very serious threat.

Drax simply stares at the small potted tree for a moment before scooping it up and bringing it to his room. Maybe young Groot would like to watch him sharpen his daggers. And perhaps he can confirm his suspicion that the young plant is hiding something from him whenever he turns his gaze.

-

The market is like any other market on any other planet: loud, crowded, and dirty. The scents of several different types of alien flesh being grilled on sticks waft through the dusty air. The banners of the different vendors flap in the breeze. The cacophony of different dialects being shouted, whether to advertise wares or haggle the prices of them, gives the place that tense feeling of an argument about to erupt. Rocket knows better than to bother with the vendors being flashy; they're just con men spinning a yarn, so no, he looks for something else for his perfect find. It's an instinct he doesn't know the origin of, and if it was pointed out to him he would deny it, but he likes the shiny stuff. It doesn't need to need to literally shine - sometimes it just has to catch his eye just right. He likes trinkets, so what? The others don't know about the box under his bunk, next to the spare blaster and ammo. It contains a few of the following items:

\- A tuft of his fur that fell out after his implants were first grafted.

\- A smooth rock from the first planet he and Groot landed on once they'd busted out of the hellhole they were kept in. When he'd dragged his sorry, aching carcass to daylight down the ramp of the getaway ship they had stolen, it dug into his ribs as he watched Groot take his first free steps on the soft red grass. He turned his massive body back to Rocket and the smile on his big dumb face told him it was worth it.

\- The first flower Groot ever grew, that he insisted Rocket pluck from his massive shoulder. Rocket scoffed, "I'm not that easy a date idiot," but he very carefully took it anyway. He tucked it gently into his tactical vest and forgot about it until it fluttered to the floor as he undressed that night. It stayed with him in its dried form in the box, through several moves to new and mostly stolen ships, until it came to the Milano.

\- Several mechanical components that could come in handy one day. He had heard the team call him 'pack rat' and had bristled at the 'rat' part, but he guessed it was true. Not that he would ever admit it.

\- At least 50K in untraceable credits in case they need to run again, just the two of them.

No matter what kind of shitshow the Guardians get into, he has that box to remind him how to survive. Sometimes, when the nightmares get too bad, he gets it out and stares at it, opens it and runs his claws over the contents like worry stones.

So, he's looking around this dump and getting kind of hungry when he sees it. On a rack to the left of him is a display of necklaces and on each chain is a bauble that has the coloration of a nebula, blue and green and red and purple swirling over a surface that has a metallic sheen. It's probably mass-manufactured plastic, not a real jewel. Tourist crap. But it suddenly reminds him of warm lights all around him and big, dark eyes staring sadly into his, saying goodbye, and branches encasing him. He buys it without looking at the price. Groot needs something to do, stuck in that pot - might as well give him something to look at.

At least that's what he grumbles when Quill asks why there's a necklace draped over one of Groot's branches that night over dinner.

-

Groot's been out of the pot for a month and Rocket’s almost had it. He gets into everything: his weapons stash, the rations, the engine room. He's always underfoot and everyone has taken to subconsciously looking before they go through doors or sit down around the ship, or at least being as cautious as possible when it comes to Drax. Which is obviously very hard for him.

One night, they're all awakened by an alarm blaring from the cockpit. They rush in to find the main console lit up like a solar flare and Groot spinning in the captain's chair, plugging his ears. There's a lot of panic and swearing and when the ship's back to normal, Rocket ends up in a three-way screaming fight with Quill and Gamora, though it's really just them talking over each other in increasing volumes while Drax shrugs and goes back to bed and Groot looks increasingly upset.

"How did he even get out of his room? Why wasn't the door locked? Why wasn't someone watching him?" Gamora demands though she must know she won't get any answers to those questions.

Quill puts his hands up as high as he can while being exhausted and rumpled from being suddenly awoken. "Don't look at me, he sleeps in Rocket’s room. Why wasn't he watching him?

"What the hell am I supposed to do? Stick him back in his pot so he can't wander?" Rocket growls.

"You're his friend, work your Groot Magic to get him to behave!" Quil says, as if this makes perfect sense.

"I’m not a damn tree trainer!" Rocket snarks. "Anyways, he didn't listen to me when he was big, what makes you think he’ll give a damn when he's a dumb baby?"

Gamora and Quill both look defeated by this logic, coming from the team member that understands Groot best in any form, but they keep grumbling amongst themselves.  
"He almost jettisoned the ship's engine!"

"How the hell did he even reach the buttons?"

"He could have touched something dangerous..."

"More dangerous than blowing up the ship?"

"He's a child and this ship is a trash heap, it's dangerous for him."

"Hey, the Milano is badass ship! And I grew up on a ravager ship and I was fine."

"We both know that isn't a healthy barometer of childhood Peter, and I would know about unhealthy childhoods," Gamora says, gently but still stern.

They exchange an awkward bonding moment of shared childhood dysfunction before moving on. Their shared anger has subsided for now, at least until someone else on the ship pulls a stupid stunt. Quill sighs in tired agreement to her point and looks sternly at Groot as he picks him up and deposits him on Rocket's shoulder.

"Bad Groot," he say, in his best scolding tone.

It's not convincing at all, although Groot does seem to be finally tired out if not apologetic. They all wordlessly return to their beds.

As Rocket slides Groot back into the small nest of blankets that has become his bed in Rocket’s room and returns to his own bunk, he's still left wired from the excitement and unable to sleep. They were all angry but he knows Quill and Gamora were pissed off for a different reason. They're scared for Groot. They had shitty childhoods and they're trying to compensate by keeping him safe.

Rocket's pissed his partner got himself infantile and now he has to keep saving him 'cause it's supposed to be the other way around. He's not a damn babysitter. That wasn't part of the contract of their partnership; it was an informal one but Rocket hates getting duped anyway. Their partnership has always been weirdly equal, combining his brains and Groot's muscle, but now Groot's defenses are nonexistent and Rocket can fight, he can defend himself pretty damn well with an arsenal made of space trash any day, but Groot had been his backup for years. It's like if the Milano suddenly lost its artificial gravity. Something keeps you grounded for so long, it's a real shitshow when you're suddenly floating upside down trying to scramble for a grip again.

As he watches Groot sleep without a care in the world, he considers finding some fertilizer or something at the next market. The faster his partner grows, the faster things can go back to normal, or as normal as their fucked-up lives are liable to get.

-

Quill said they might get caught in a space storm on their way to Lessorn for their next job, but Rocket only remembers this later as at the time he was stuffing his face with dinner, and he had learned to tune the others out for the most part so he didn't have to listen to them bicker about whether Drax or Quill had worse table manners.

He's in his bunk that evening when he feels a tug on his shoulder and he's got his blaster in his paw before he opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is Groot an inch from his snout; the first thing he hears is the clanging reverberating through the walls and the way the ship seems to be humming loudly. The ship's usually pretty quiet unless they're being shot at or the hull gets breached and all the damn alarms start blaring. He starts to run a defense plan in his head before it takes him a second to remember the storm: so not an attack, then. He starts to turn back over to get some d'ast shuteye when he takes a second look at Groot. He's still there, standing on the bed an inch from his face. His little woody face is stricken with terror. His eyes are large and shiny. His little mouth is turned in a frown.

"I am Groot!" he squeaks.

"It's just a storm, man, it’ll pass."

"I am Groot?"

"It's not a monster, it’s just a storm. Go back to bed."

"I am Groot!"

Rocket groans buts flips the meager blanket up to make room.

"Fine, dammit, but if you shed any mulch in my bed I get out the gardening shears, capisce?"

Groot nods and crawls under the covers and settles in next to Rocket's furry chest.

"Now go the fuck to sleep."

Groot settles down with a tiny yawn, and if the louder bangs of the storm reverberating through the walls cause Groot to grip him with splinter-like fingers, Rocket grits his teeth and stays silent, which for him just goes to show how tired he is. As he drifts off, he remembers a night ages ago on some backwater planet, cold and hungry and exhausted, collapsing in a hollow of Groot's wooden body just large enough to curl up in, getting the best sleep of his miserable life so far.

-

It's been a couple weeks since they all came to the mutual decision that leaving Groot on the ship while they went on a mission was not going work.

The first time they tried, leaving him with a bowl of candy and Awesome Mix 2 blaring over the ship's speakers to keep him occupied, they returned to find the Milano two feet to the left of where Quill swears he parked originally, the ground around the perimeter of the ship scorched to hell. Then they entered the ship and discovered it looked like a group of Ravagers and Kree warriors had had a drunken shoot out all over it; food packages were strewn everywhere, furniture was dented and upturned, several of the doors to the bunks were locked from the inside. And, curled up in one of Quill's dirty t-shirts, was a sleeping Groot with candy smeared all over his face, somehow still looking adorable and innocent.

When they demanded an explanation, all Rocket translated from Groot was, "I thought you were gone forever so I panicked."

Therefore they came to the uneasy decision of bringing an infant tree with them on missions, with the condition that at least one team member has to keep watch on him at all times. It's usually Rocket as the others rarely get Groot to follow their instructions to not wander off and not touch random stuff or put it in his mouth. Also, Groot complained and said Drax was an idiot that didn't understand the groove, whatever that meant, the first time it was his turn to look after him. Rocket didn't bother translating that - he just laughed until Drax threatened violence when he sensed he was being trash-talked.

The buddy system works pretty well until Rocket comes down from the adrenaline high of a truly impressive explosion that he personally orchestrated and he realizes he hasn't seen Groot in the few minutes since the shootout with Atraxacian slavers began. He tries not to panic and checks the others: he's not with Quill, tucked into his jacket pocket as he pretends not to be looting the bodies, or on Drax's shoulders as he wipes down his now bloody daggers, or tagging along beside Gamora as she walks off to contact the Nova Corps to tell them the job's done, and maybe picking up a pretty rock to give her with a big smile like he's presenting his momma with a parent's day gift.

"Uh, guys, we have an issue. Groot's gone." Three heads swerve towards him, lightning fast.

It says something about the state of their teamwork, although Rocket would never be caught dead saying that word, that everyone immediately starts looking for Groot instead of fighting. They spread out and start moving debris and calling for him. It takes a few minutes until Rocket passes by a particularly big dead body and hears a tiny muffled "I am Groot!" coming from that direction. He shouts for Drax to come over and flip the corpse, and there's Groot, a little banged up but unhurt from being trapped under the dead guy's torso when he fell.

The first thing he says is, "I am Groot."

For anyone else, the tone in which Rocket snaps "Nobody cares that the body stinks, we thought you were dead, you little brat!'' would be called hysterical. He snatches Groot up and is tempted to shake the little idiot until Groot puts a little hand to his cheek. He thinks of Groot's sad smile as he said goodbye on Ronan's ship and wiped away the tear Rocket would swear he never cried.

His anger deflates a bit but he grunts, "Don't you pull that innocent act on me, young man, you are absolutely grounded for this stunt, you stay by me from now on, you hear me?" The others are crowded around them now and they murmur with agreement.

Later, in his bunk as he's trying to fall asleep, he'll remember the moment they all got to work searching for Groot and he will get a clutching feeling in his chest at the fact that it's not just the two of them anymore. He has more backup than he ever thought possible. He still wants his original partner back, sure, but if it takes the rest of those jerks to fill in before gets his true partner in crime back then he guesses he could do worse.

Groot still sleeps in his room, though.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Father and Son by Yusef Islam/Cat Stevens


End file.
